Sports
Hockey

‘Cool experience’ a ‘difficult’ game

Canada’s Carter Hart makes a pad save on Brady Tkachuk of the United States as defenceman Victor Mete, a former London Knight, and American attacker Joey Anderson close in during the second period of Friday’s much-anticipated first meeting of the perennial rivals in world junior hockey round-robin outdoor action at New Era Field in Orchard Park, N.Y., Friday. Tied 3-3 after overtime, Canada’s top guns went as cold as the snowy, sub-zero conditions and the U.S. notched a 4-3 shootout win. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press)

Light snow was falling when the game started in the home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. That progressed to heavy flurries through much of the second and third periods, ensuring those hired to clean the ice during TV timeouts were earning their wages.

Vast amounts of the white stuff was being carted off the ice in garbage cans and wheelbarrows.

“It was a cool experience,” Canada defenceman Kale Clague said. “Playing in front of that many fans in an outdoor game, I will always remember it, (but) I think the weather was a little bit offside.”

That was the rub in an atmosphere that was, at times, breathtaking.

Let’s put it nicely: No single play will be among the event highlights when the tournament ends.

The weather and ice conditions were impactful and it was easy to wonder how much better the game between intense rivals would have been had it been played in a normal hockey environment.

“It was difficult,” Canada defenceman Dante Fabbro said. “You look at small breakdowns, a lot of it was guys overskating pucks and getting caught in snow and things like that. It was definitely tough to make passes and plays. You would lose the puck in the snow and you could not find where it was, but it was like that for both teams.”

Still, the hockey spectacle for one day was special and unique and won’t be forgotten by anyone involved.

The loss served as more pain for the seven Canadian players — Hart, Clague, Fabbro, Raddysh, Jake Bean, Dillon Dube and Michael McLeod — who were part of the team last winter that lost to the U.S. in a shootout in the gold-medal game in Montreal.

“Tough pill to swallow once again, losing to the Americans in a shootout,” McLeod said. “Only good thing was that it’s just the round-robin.”

Said U.S. coach Bob Motzko: “The only way it’s a rival is that both teams have to win. And the pendulum will come back some day. I just hope it’s not this year.”

Canada plays Denmark in its final game on Saturday and will clinch Group A with a victory. In world junior history, Canada is 4-0 against Denmark and has outscored the Danes 28-4.

On Friday, traffic woes, long waits at the Canada-U.S. border and a thorough security team at the stadium gates meant thousands of fans were not in their seats for the game’s start. The stands filled in, however, and when the final tally was taken, there was a world junior record.

Attendance was announced as 44,592, easily beating the mark of 20,380 to witness live a world junior game. That came in the gold-medal game in Ottawa in 2009, when Canada beat Sweden at what was then known as Scotiabank Place.

Canada built a 2-0 lead in the first period on power-play goals by Cale Makar and Dube. Bellows scored in the second for the U.S., but Boris Katchouk restored Canada’s two-goal lead a minute later.

In the third, Scott Perunovich and Brady Tkachuk, with the tying goal, scored 34 seconds apart. Casey Mittelstadt assisted on all three U.S. goals.

Any concerns regarding the health of three Canadian defencemen — Clague, Bean and Fabbro have been dealing with varying degrees of injury — dissipated. Clague led all Canadians with 26 minutes, 49 seconds of ice time.

Would Canada coach Dominique Ducharme rather have had the game against such a rival played indoors, under normal hockey circumstances?

“If you look at the result, if we had to lose, we better lose in overtime or in a shootout,” Ducharme said. “A win (against Denmark) and we finish first.

“That’s a good position to come into the playoffs. It’s a good way to learn. It does not cost too much.”